Janet Napolitano has a message for Canadians: It's a border. Get used to it.

The new Homeland Security Secretary had only stern comments yesterday about the state and future of the Canada-U.S. border, at a symposium hosted by the Brookings Institution. ...

”It's a real border, and we need to address it as a real border,” Ms. Napolitano said, calling on both Americans and Canadians to accept this ”change of culture.”

That culture changes most emphatically June 1, when the United States will require anyone entering from Canada to produce a passport or its equivalent. ...

Roberta Jacobson, who is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Canada, Mexico and NAFTA at the State Department, said that Canada and the United States should talk about border issues without involving Mexico, the third member of the North American Free Trade Agreement partnership.

”This is one where we ought to start with Canada,” she said. This has long been the wish of Canadian officials, who believe that bringing Mexico into border discussions prevents agreements in areas where Canada and the United States could work co-operatively.

But Ms. Napolitano doused that idea as well, reminding the gathering that ”one of the things that we need to be sensitive to is the very real feelings among southern border states and in Mexico that if things are being done on the Mexican border, they should also be done on the Canadian border.”

It seemed to be another lesson learned: when it comes to national security, the Obama administration's policies are often consonant with its Republican predecessor.

Indeed.

The Obama Administration's goal here is presumably to build a coalition against enforcement on the Mexican border by annoying Congressmen on the Canadian border. When they complain, the Obama Administration will say, "Obviously, being tougher on the Mexican border than the Canadian border would be racist. You don't want to be racist, do you? So, you must join us in voting for making both borders laxer." And the far northern Congressmen will figure, "Hell, it will be at least a generation before illegal immigrants overrun my frigid district, so it's no skin off my nose to go along with Obama and Napalitano. Too bad about the bottom two-thirds of the country, but that's not my problem."